Editorials

Point driven home?

Swapnil Bharali | June 02, 2018 19:30
hrs

The first thing I do on waking up is of course scan the newspapers. Yeah, I know that’s part of my job. But more so these days, the progress or rather hopefully, the lack of it, as far as the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is concerned, is what is holding my interest. And I am sure, I am not alone but among the teeming millions of concerned indigenous Assamese who are fearful of losing their “jati, mati aru bheti” in the name of “poribartan” – shrill elections slogans as these were two years ago that swept the BJP to power in Assam.

Well, somehow the recent reassurances of our chief minister that Assamese jati should not be worried about the loss of their mati and bheti to aliens are being taken with a large dose of salt – a pinch of it doesn’t stand a chance any more. The preposterousness of the very idea that forms the basis of the Bill has truly sunk in from the grassroots to the creamy layers of the state’s population. And the protests continue and will continue despite all reassurances by the chief minister and the union home minister simply because people seem to have suddenly realized that they cannot take the utterances of these politicians at face value any more. A constant fear of being cheated and betrayed by these same politicians whom we had voted to power is proving to be all pervasive within the Brahmaputra Valley.

And so, in this context, it would be worthwhile for Sarbananda Sonowal and Rajnath Singh to immediately throw the Bill – in whatever shape or form it is in now – into the trash bin and undertake a PR exercise such that it would convince us of their good intentions of being our protectors rather than perpetrators. Every press medium, be it television, print or social, has been tenaciously addressing this apprehension by covering the massive protests being staged across the entire valley. And yet, the dilly-dallying continues with the powers that be. I mean, come on, life of politicians just cannot be about living from one election to the next and consolidating their positions for the same in the meantime. This is just not governance.